The End
by Lucillia
Summary: Ten Years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto has one last task to complete.


Naruto stood on the cliff into which the faces of the previous Hokage had been carved, looking out over his village. Konoha had been at peace for the last ten years since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War had ended with the foiling of the rather insane Moon's Eye Plan. During that period of prosperity, he had been named Hokage as he'd said he would be for almost as long as he could remember.

It had been in his role as Hokage that he had seen how deeply the rot had truly set in. Rot that would be cleared from the village today...

...Along with everything else.

He had never been very good at lying, but having the Yamanaka running through his mind dozens of times during the early years had made him an expert at hiding things even from himself until he'd needed them. One thing he'd managed to hide when he'd somehow convinced the world that he was the somewhat dim avatar of sweetness and light and eternal friendship was that he hadn't completely banished a part of himself as he had claimed. Another thing he'd managed to hide was just about everything his mother had told him about her life and the night the Kyuubi attacked Konoha.

There is one reason why the Senju had chosen to ally themselves with the Uzumaki rather than go to war with them, and it wasn't because they had their hands full with the Uchiha. The Uzumaki were generally easy-going, but if you gave them reason to hate you, they would utterly destroy you even if it took them centuries to do so. When they wanted to, the Uzumaki could play the long game so professionally that Uchiha Madara looked like a rank amateur in comparison. It was a pity that later generations had forgotten that lesson.

Uchiha Obito had said it best hours before he was buried alive under several tons of rocks and left to die by his team: "Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash."

Konoha had abandoned Uzushogakure when they'd needed them the most, and to add insult to injury, they had the unmitigated gall to continue to wear the symbol of their eternal alliance with the fallen village afterward.

Thanks to Jiraiya's negligence in this area during the years he'd learned from the man who'd been like a father to him, probably because Ero-senin had suspected that something like this might happen, but for different reasons, it had taken him a long time to become proficient enough to repair and adjust the groundwork that had been laid by his mother in the years after Uzu's fall. Even with the key that Tobi had given him in the few moments they'd had alone together before Kakashi had intervened. But finally, everything was ready.

He had briefly considered sending his precious people out on assignments today, but realized that keeping them here, unwitting and unknowing of what was to happen, would be far more merciful.

He smeared blood on the last point of the seal, and watch it glow blue. As he watched the blue glow wend its way down into and then through the village which promptly erased itself from existence, vanishing into oblivion as if it had never been, he consoled himself with the fact that the great tree that was Konoha had died a generation before he was born. All he was doing was clearing away the debris, hopefully before the blight that had taken it spread.

_"So, any last words before I release the Kyuubi from its prison and turn it on your precious village?" A boy who would never have dreamed of considering this a year before asked a woman who had once been counted amongst his dearest friends as he killed her._

_"Obito, promise me something..." the red haired woman who was chained to a rock said, knowing she had very little time before her husband secured their son and found her._

_"Yes Kushina-neechan?" the masked boy who had been burned one too many times who stood before her asked coldly, almost sarcastically._

_Her smile turned positively feral in the moments before the pain of the Kyuubi's impending release overtook her once more._

_"Promise me you'll kill them all."_


End file.
